Emerging in Seattle

You’d probably try to avoid the straitjacketed theological curriculum of the 19th-century German university, which scrupulously separated the study of the Bible, theology, church history and ministry from one another. You would focus on integrating fields of learning as much as you could without risking your accreditation. You’d try to blend the energy of the evangelical world and the intellectual openness of the mainline. You’d locate the seminary in a city that people want to live in.

In short, you’d make it a lot like Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle.

The seminary began in 1997 as a school of counseling, using faculty from evangelical Colorado Christian University. The school sought oversight and help in gaining accreditation from Western Seminary, a Conservative Baptist Association school in Portland, Oregon, before setting out on its own in 2000.